F & P 708 continually out of balance.

Hi All,

I hope someone can help me. I have F&P GW708 that I have owned since 1998 and it’s worked great with the only fault with the hot water valve.

Just last week the machine started to continually go out of balance during the first part of the rinse cycle. The OOB condition starts when the rinse water is added while the drum is spinning and is associated with a water swooshing sound which gets worse with the OOB condition.

The clothes are not causing the OOB condition as I just hit the START button after the OOB condition and the drum starts spinning OK in balance until again the rinse water is added. If I advance the rinse cycle to SPIN the drum drains and the machine spins out OK with no OOB.

The fault only occurs when the rinse water is added while the drum is spinning.

The drum was sitting central in the machine, however I have removed all four suspension units and checked for broken/ damaged springs and they are all OK. Removed the water pump to check for obstructions in case the pump cannot pump the water from the drum quickly enough during the rinse cycle – no obstructions that I could see. The OOB switch and actuating arm are both OK.

There are no fault codes and the machine works great other than this OOB, which only started last week.

Is there some sort of baffle arrangement between the inner and outer drum that regulates where the water sits during spinning that may be broken?
Could the drain pump be low output/inefficient?

Any help would be gratefully received.

Regards
Tony